A CATCH FOR THE FEDS: Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd faces up to 40 years in jail if convicted of the federal drug charges he is facing.

The strange, shocking case of Sam Hurd produced shockwaves around the NFL yesterday and may have left more than a few players extremely nervous.

The veteran wide receiver was released by the Bears shortly after being arraigned in Chicago on federal felony charges of intent to distribute cocaine and was described as a drug kingpin — a stunning turn of events for a quiet player widely described as one of the NFL’s nice guys.

Hurd, 26, had been arrested Wednesday after allegedly trying to buy four kilos of cocaine from an undercover agent. The government also accused him of seeking to make weekly cocaine and marijuana buys of as much as $700,000 and overseeing a $2 million-per-month drug operation in Chicago.

As well as disbelief at the charges against a player whose Dallas teammates had voted him the winner of the Cowboys’ Ed Block Courage Award last year, nerves around the league also were no doubt on edge after Chicago media outlets reported the government found a list on Hurd of at least 10 NFL players who were his drug customers.

The NFL said it had no knowledge of the reported customer list.

Hurd was primarily a special teams player for the Bears and had just eight catches for 109 yards and no TDs this season.

Facing trial next year in Texas with the possibility of as many as 40 years in jail, Hurd immediately hired noted defense attorney David Kenner and vowed to fight the charges after bail was set at $100,000.

Kenner, who successfully defended rappers Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur on serious charges, told reporters yesterday he didn’t believe there is a list of purported NFL customers for Hurd.

“Sam has asked me to address one point, with respect to the rumors that Sam has been supplying drugs to other members of the NFL … he 100 percent denies that allegation,” fellow defense attorney Bryan Greenfield told reporters yesterday. “It is patently and totally false. It just didn’t happen.”

Hurd’s friends and former teammates, meanwhile, reacted with disbelief that Hurd could be the mastermind of such a huge criminal activity while seeming to use pro football as his cover.

“It’s crazy,” said Giants defensive end Dave Tollefson, who described himself as a friend of Hurd. “You’ve got to think it has to do with the people he surrounded himself with. You don’t want to rush to judgment of a guy like that. You hope something good comes out of it and he learns his lesson.’’

Giants defensive end Chris Canty, who played alongside Hurd with the Cowboys, said he was “shocked” to hear of his former teammate’s arrest.

“No [suspicions],” Canty said. “Sam was always a positive, upbeat guy, a good teammate, a good locker-room guy. Lot of guys had positive things to say about him.’’

Bears general manager Jerry Angelo, red-faced after signing Hurd to a three-year deal this summer worth $5.1 million (including a $1.35 million signing bonus), insisted he had done his homework.

“There were no facts, there were no flags, that anybody could present tangibly to say we should have known otherwise, and I want to make that perfectly clear to the public, to our fans,” Angelo told reporters. “We do our homework. We do our due diligence. We did everything you could possibly do given the information that we can allocate.”